& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Nukes in the making, says N Korea

AFP, Seoul
North Korea raised the stakes in the nuclear standoff yesterday, claiming it had produced enough weapons-grade plutonium for half-a-dozen atomic bombs and suggesting it was already building new weapons.
The statement also indicated North Korea would pull out of sixway talks aimed at ending the yearlong impasse and complained that Washington has failed to meet its demand for a non-aggression pact.
A North Korea foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement the
Stalinist state had successfully completed reprocessing 8,000 spent fuel rods, guaranteed to yield enough plutonium for around six nuclear weapons.
"As we have already declared, the DPRK (North Korea) resumed nuclear activities for a peaceful purpose ...," said the statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
"As part of it, the DPRK successfully finished the reprocessing of some 8,000 spent fuel rods," the statement added.
The statement also indicated the
reprocessed fuel was already being used to build more nuclear bombs.
It said that after reprocessing, North Korea "made a switchover in the use of plutonium churned out by reprocessing spent fuel rods in the direction increasing its nuclear deterrent force."
"We will reprocess more spent fuel rods to be churned out in an unbroken chain from the five megawatt nuclear reactor in Nyongbyon (Yongbyon) without delay when we deem it necessary."
The United States believes North Korea has already developed one or two nuclear weapons and that reprocessing the fuel rods will yield enough plutonium for around six more within months.
Three days of talks in Beijing in late August aimed at defusing the year-long stand-off, bringing together the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia, and the United States, ended inconclusively.
Washington has insisted that North Korea scrap its nuclear weapons drive before it will consider offering the Stalinist state concessions including economic and security benefits.
Despite optimistic signals this week from Japanese and US officials about the possibility of a new round of talks, North Korea said it had little faith in the process.
"As far as the resumption of the
six-way talks is concerned, the DPRK did not make any promise with anyone at the Beijing talks and the same holds true even after the talks," it said.
The nuclear crisis erupted last October when Washington said the North Koreans had admitted to running a nuclear program based on enriched uranium in violation of a 1994 nuclear freeze accord.
The pact collapsed after North Korea expelled UN nuclear inspectors and began to revive its mothballed nuclear plants to protest a US halt to fuel oil supply for the energy-starved state.
North Korea claimed it had begun reprocessing more the spent fuel rods to make weapons-grade plutonium in April just prior to a first round of six-way talks. In June, it said the process was almost completed.
US and South Korean officials said they had no way of verifying the claim although South Korea's intelligence chief said in July that evidence pointed to reprocessing of "a small portion" of North Korea's stockpile of spent fuel rods.
In mid-July the White House said North Korea had informed the United States that it had completed reprocessing. Again, Washington and Seoul said they were unable to confirm the claim.
Meanwhile, a senior South Korean official on Thursday played down North Korea's threat to pull out of six-way talks on its nuclear programme, describing Pyongyang's tough rhetoric as a negotiating tactic.
Vice Unification Minister Cho Kun-Shik voiced optimism that North Korea was still interested in a fresh round of six-nation talks on ending the 11-month staff over its nuclear weapons drive.
"Through direct and indirect contacts with North Koran officials, I believe the North is willing to continue dialogue. I see their threat as a negotiating tactic," he said.